The accountability paradigm for reforming public schools began in the U.S. as a state-based initiative grounded in establishing state standards for core content and developing high-stakes tests and schedules to hold schools, teachers, and students accountable (Hout and Elliott, 2011). This essay examines the test-based patterns of that paradigm…

Few studies have looked at the consequences of standardized writing tests to students' understanding of what it means "to be" a competent writer. Using research techniques drawn from performance studies and art therapy, this qualitative study of middle class, honors students invited them to explore their understanding of what it means to…

The second volume of the Commission on Tests' report contains the briefs submitted by individual members for the consideration of the full Commission. These briefs, which argued for 46 proposed recommendations, formed the basis for the recommendations made in the first volume. Each brief is accompanied by a record of the endorsements, comments,…

Queen's College in London's Harley Street was founded in 1848 by Frederick Denison Maurice. Together with other professors from King's College London he began the venture for the education of middle-class girls, which was "greeted with prejudice and ridicule." Originally planned as an institution for training governesses, it was decided…

Using network data from 40 groups, we examine the effect of social context on the gendering of power relations. By modeling reported data on power relations as the result of a stochastic response process that may be gendered, we examine how this gendering is related to group-level contextual factors. We find that much of what appears to be a…